Gjon Kastrioti II

Gjon II Kastrioti (;1456–2 August 1514), was the son of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, the Albanian national hero, and of Donika Kastrioti, daughter of the powerful Albanian prince, Gjergj Arianiti. He was for a short time Lord of Kruja after his father's death, then Duke of San Pietro in Galatina (1485), Count of Soleto, Signore of Monte Sant'Angelo and San Giovanni Rotondo. In 1495, Ferdinand I of Naples gave him the title of the Signore of Gagliano del Capo and Oria. While in his teens, he was forced to leave the country after the death of his father in 1468. He is known also for his role in the Albanian Uprisings of 1481, when, after reaching the Albanian coast from Italy, settling in Himara, he led a rebellion against the Ottomans. In June 1481, he supported forces of Ivan Crnojević to successfully recapture Zeta from the Ottomans. He was unable to re-establish the Kastrioti Principality and liberate Albania from the Ottomans, and he retired in Italy after three years of war in 1484. The return of Gjon II Kastrioti in Albania (1481-1484) With the death of his father, Skanderbeg, in 1468, Gjon II Kastrioti migrated with his mother, Donika Kastrioti, and for a short period of time lived in the Kingdom of Naples, in the properties he had inherited from his father, Skanderbeg. He was fighting against the Ottomans in Otranto, when representatives of the Albanian insurgents asked Gjon II Kastrioti to return to Albania and he accepted their request. Taking advantage of the interest of the Neapolitan court at this time in expanding the front of the war against the Ottoman invaders, Gjon II Kastrioti managed to obtain from King Ferdinand the necessary means of navigation to come to Albania together with a number of warriors. In four Neapolitan ships (galera) he loaded his forces and set sail for the homeland with his cousin, Konstandin Muzaka. After Gjon II Kastrioti landed south of Durrës in 1481, Neapolitan ships headed for southern Albania and landed Konstandin Muzaka in the Himara area, where another hotbed of anti-Ottoman uprisings had been created. Meanwhile, in northern Albania, in the mountainous regions of Lezha and Shkodra, the forces of Nikollë and Lekë Dukagjini operated. They also attacked the city of Shkodra, which forced Sulejman Pasha to send military reinforcements to this area as well.